Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Daisy
I must have gasped too loudly because in the next second, the lock was slammed back and the door opened. Fighting back a scream, I scrambled on all fours towards Alec’s sleeping form, keeping my body between him and the door.
Now that I knew what they planned, all the exhaustion left me. My hands shook as I clenched them at my sides. Deep down, I knew there wasn’t much I could do. I was outmanned, and even if I hadn’t been, I was so weak from lack of food and water that I knew I couldn’t put up much of a fight.
Not that I would need to. I just needed to keep them busy for long enough for Alec to run.
Reaching behind me, I shook him as gently as I could, and he must have been on high alert as well because he bolted upright almost instantly.
"Mama," he croaked.
"Stay behind me. Run when you get the chance."
Marguerite's laughter cut me off. She came striding into the room, her designer heels click-clacking on the bare floorboards.
I stiffened, keeping one arm behind me to keep Alec where he was.
"You’re both awake." Marguerite came to a stop six feet from us, and from my place on the filthy, threadbare mattress, she looked impossibly tall.
"I was starting to think you would just wither away and die in here.
" Her eyes raked up and down my torn, grubby clothes.
"But you’ve never been one to go away quietly, have you, Daisy?
" Not waiting for me to reply, she motioned towards the door.
I went rigid. "I won’t let you win. You won’t hurt him." Behind me, Alec was shaking.
I couldn’t even imagine the terror he was feeling. He was too young to understand why this was happening. Hell, I was a grown-up, and I could barely wrap my head around it.
A chair was carried in for her, and she fell into it, crossing her legs daintily at the ankles so I could see the red bottoms of her high heels.
"I’ve already won, Daisy." She placed her left hand on her knee, and the diamond of her engagement ring glittered.
Bile rushed up my throat. She still had her engagement ring on. That meant he hadn’t called it off. Ilya believed I had taken our son.
He would believe I murdered him as well.
"I won years ago," Marguerite continued. "You see, my engagement to Ilya was spoken about before you even came into the picture. His grandfather chose me." She smiled sardonically. "Of course, Ilya falling in love with you wasn’t part of the plan."
I stared at her in shock.
"Oh, he did love you," she continued. "He still does, even though he hates himself for it.
" She shook her head. "I thought we had gotten rid of you, so imagine my surprise when I turned up at his place and there you were. Living under his roof again. And even that fire didn’t kill you. He risked his life to save you."
Did she cause the fire too? God, she was a fiend.
She leant forward. "Tell me, has he been sharing your bed as well?"
I didn’t say a word. But something must have shown on my face, because her face twisted in rage.
"He was fucking you, wasn’t he?"
"Papa loves my mama," a small but strong voice said firmly from behind me.
My hand on his arm trembled as I tried to force him to stay behind me where it was relatively safe.
Marguerite's lips thinned. "Oh, I have no doubt about that, you snot-nosed little brat. But there’s a fine line between love and hate, and by the time I finish here, he is going to hate her."
"He won’t! He loves—"
I hushed him, trying desperately to keep my voice soothing.
"Do you think he loves you, Daisy?"
I stared at Marguerite with open hostility on my face. Did I think Ilya loved me? If I answered honestly, I didn’t know. Once upon a time, I had thought he did. The thought must have been clear on my face because her smile grew to epic proportions. No person should smile like she was smiling at me.
"He did, you know."
I blinked at her.
"Back when you fell pregnant, maybe even before, he had planned on marrying you."
I swallowed hard.
"But then, of course, you ran from the hospital." She winked with a low chuckle.
What did she mean I had run from the hospital? I hadn’t run anywhere. Hell, I’d barely been able to move after the surgery.
"Well, that’s what his grandfather told him anyway." Steadily, she met my eyes. "And you died. It was such a tragedy." She rolled her eyes. "He hated you after that. Thinking that you had run from him and Alec."
"Alexander," I corrected her instinctively. "No one but his dad and me calls him Alec."
"Like that matters now. Anyway, he hated you for leaving him. I’ll be honest, he was a bit of a monster for a while after that.
Cold. But," the smile fell from her face, "you were still in his heart.
He just kept you hidden. Locked away. He kept your clothes, your pictures.
Everything." Standing up, she took a deep breath.
"You were meant to disappear, Daisy. You were meant to stay dead.
" Reaching behind her, she pulled a gun and leveled it straight at my head.
I didn’t move; I couldn’t move. Pressed against me, Alec started to cry. And the sound of his terrified sobs finally made my limbs move. Shoving him behind me, I met Marguerite's eyes steadily.
"I thought you were going to make me take the fall?"
I could see it in her eyes, how her plans were unraveling. If I could just keep her talking, maybe I could—well, I don’t know what I would do. Grab at the gun and give Alec a chance to run?
"Well, yes." Her teeth scraped against her bottom lip, staining the white veneers with her lipstick.
"But you heard that, didn't you? I know you would go back and make him believe you, and I just can’t have that. I’m sorry.
" She giggled. "Well, actually, I’m not sorry at all. Ilya was always meant to be mine."
"Why? You don’t love him?"
She scoffed at that. The derision was clear on her face.
"No, I don’t love him. But I deserve him.
Ilya was promised to me. I was meant to be his woman.
The First Lady of the Popovitch empire." She lowered her voice until it was almost a whisper.
"And I will be his woman. When you and the brat are out of the way.
And make no mistake, Daisy. When he finds his son's body, when he realizes it was you who killed him, then he will finally come around to me.
We will be married." She flashed her giant ring.
The thing so big and gaudy it looked fake.
"I’ll pop out a few heirs and then," she sighed.
"Then Ilya will fall. It might be an accident, or a rival family. But he will die and then—"
I blinked at her slowly. She was giving away her entire plan, and I didn’t think that was a good thing.
"I’ll be in charge of his empire, and I can finally be with the man I do love."
I couldn’t help it; my eyes flicked towards the door. Following my gaze, she frowned.
"Ilya will never believe I killed Alec."
At least I hoped that was true.
"He believes you kidnapped him. I don’t think it will take much to make him believe that you killed your son to get back at him."
Against my back, Alec trembled, his sobs muffled against my spine.
"Yes." She nodded her head, almost like she was making shit up as she went along.
"I think he would believe you killed the brat and then placed the gun against your own temple and pulled the trigger.
I think I could make that work. I would have preferred he execute you himself.
For closure, you know. But I can make this work—"
From the room beyond the closed door, something smashed. Something big, and there was the sound of a scuffle.
Marguerite turned, the gun in her hand wavering for a second as fear crept into her eyes.
"What—" She whirled from the door to me. "Don’t fucking move."
I pushed Alec back, using my body as a shield and spreading my arms wide.
And a gun went off with an almost deafening boom.